WHITTIER – A resident wants to warn neighbors about a white pickup truck that suddenly stopped near his son’s sport utility vehicle early Thursday morning then took off when his younger son rushed toward the suspected culprits.

The man said he ran out when he heard his 15-year-old son yelling, “Dad! Dad! Dad!” and chased the white pickup but later lost sight of it on Colima Road.

Police spokesman Officer Jason Zuhlke said what happened on Seranata Drive appears to be an isolated incident. He said crime statistics for the Friendly Hills area going back to October don’t show any similar incident reported to police.

However, he said just because it’s deemed an isolated incident doesn’t mean police aren’t following up on this report.

Concerned that the suspects might return, the residents had asked that their name not be used. But they want a record of the incident in case it happens again.

“I just want people to know. It is a safe neighborhood but it can happen anywhere. I don’t need the attention,” the 42-year-old resident said.

It happened about 4:50 a.m. Thursday while his younger son was in an SUV, which was parked but running in the driveway.

The boy and his 18-year-old brother leave early since they attend a private high school in another city and need to be on the practice field by 6 a.m. They play football.

The man said he went inside to get the boys’ lunches. His older son was in the house at the time. He heard his younger son yelling.

The man’s wife said she also heard the boy scream, “Dad! Dad! Dad!”

Her son told her the pickup stopped near the SUV, which had the driver’s side door open. The teen got scared and thought the suspects would get in the SUV, according to his mother. He jumped out and ran toward the white pickup. The suspects tried to get the truck into drive then sped away.

“He ran towards them to scare them off,” she said.

The man said he chased the white Ford pickup which had two occupants. He estimated he was going 100 mph but the truck was always ahead of him.

Ruby Gonzales started working for the company in 1991. Since then she has written about cities, school districts, crimes, cold cases, courts, the San Gabriel River, local history, anime, insects, forensics and the early days of the Internet when people still referred to it as the "information superhighway." Her current beat includes breaking news, crimes and courts for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star News and Whittier Daily News. When not in crime reporter mode, she frequents the remaining bookstores in the San Gabriel Valley, haunts craft stores or gets dragged to eateries by a relative who is a foodie.